SELENICEREUS. 201 



long, weak, reclining on the lower side of the flower-tube and attached along the inner face of the 

 tube for 7 to 8 cm.; tube-proper about 2 cm. long, yellow within; style 20 cm. long, yellowish green, 

 bronzed above, thick but weak; stigma-lobes numerous, linear; ovary covered with long white silky 

 hairs and bristles, 10 to 12 mm. long; fruit globular, red, 6 to 7 cm. in diameter. 



Type locality: Mexico. 



Distribution: Mexico; known to us only from cultivated specimens or from plants 

 escaped from gardens. 



Cereus antoinii (Pfeiffer, Enum. Cact. 114. 1837) is known only as a synonym of Cereus 

 nycticallus. Cereus rosaceus, first mentioned by De Candolle (Prodr. 3: 471. 1828), is only a 

 garden name which Pfeiffer (Enum. Cact. 114. 1837) referred to C. nycticallus. 



Cereus pcanii Beguin first mentioned in Rebut's Catalogue (Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 4: 

 1 73. 1894) has never been formally published. According to Weber, it is a hybrid of which 

 Cereus nycticallus is one of the parents. Cereus nothus (Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 4:173. 1894), 

 grown by Gruson but never described, is, according to Schumann, Cereus ptcrogonus. Cereus 

 nothus Wendland (Schumann, Gesamtb. Kakteen 143. 1897), however, he says is a hybrid. 



Several varieties of this species have been named, most of which doubtless belong here ; 

 at least the following do: C. nycticalus gracilior Haage (Forster, Handb. Cact. 416. 1846), 

 C. nycticalus maxiniiliani (Arendt, Monatsschr. Kakteenk. 1:58. 1891), and C. nycticalus 

 viridior Salm-Dyck (Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1849. 51, 216. 1850). It has frequently been used 

 by gardeners in making hybrids, especially with 5. grandiflorus and Hclioccreus speciosus. 



This is a common plant in conservatories. 



Illustrations: Amer. Garden 11:471; Diet. Gard. Nicholson i : f . 408; Lemaire, Cact. 

 f. ii ; Riimpler, Sukkulenten f. 70, 71; Verh. Ver. Beford. Gartenb. io:pl. 4, alias Cereus 

 nycticallus. 



Plate xxxvin, figure i, shows a fruiting branch of a plant obtained from J. E. Barre 

 in 1901, which flowered in the New York Botanical Garden in 1915. 



7. Selenicereus kunthianus (Otto) Britton and Rose, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 430. 1909. 



Cereus kunthianus Otto in Salm-Dyck, Cact. Hort. Dyck. 1849. 217. 1850. 



Stems elongate, weak, bluish green or purplish, i to 2.5 cm. thick; ribs 5 to 10, low; spines 

 only i to 2 mm. long, 7 to 9; flowers 24 cm. long, the slender tube about 12 cm. long; outer perianth- 

 segments numerous, linear, shorter than the white inner ones; axils of scales on ovary and flower-tube 

 with long silky hairs; fruit unknown. 



Type locality: Not cited. 



Distribution: Known only in cultivation; said to have come from Honduras. 



We are basing our determination of this species on a plant sent under this name to 

 Dr. Rose from the Berlin Botanical Garden (1909); this has 5-angled stems. The ori- 

 ginal description of the species calls for 7-angled to xo-angled stems, however. There may 

 be this amount of variability in the stems, or there may be two species involved. 



Figure 277 shows a branch of a plant in the collection of the New York Botanical 

 Garden, received from the Berlin Botanical Garden. 



8. Selenicereus brevispinus sp. nov. 



Stems rather stout, climbing or 

 clambering, 2 to 3 cm. thick, in cultiva- 

 tion somewhat branching, light green, the 

 growing branches tipped with white 

 hairs; ribs 8 to 10, separated by narrow 

 intervals, undulating, with knobby areoles ; 

 areoles circular, with short tawny felt; 

 spines about 12, conic, stiff, about i mm. 

 long, the ? or 4 centrals thicker than the 

 somewhat curved or hooked radials; FIG. ^TBranch of S. kunthianus. Xo. 5 . 



bristles from the lower parts of the areoles, 6 or more, longer than the spines, hair-like; flower- 



